Labour’s housing plans ‘won’t help squeezed middle’
Rent to own platform chief points out there is no provision in Labour’s housebuilding plans to help young and first-time buyers get onto the housing ladder.
Kettel Homes’ senior Trevor Stunden (main image) has welcomed the Labour Government’s aim to ‘get Britain building’ but says there is a glaring omission – stimulating the demand side of the equation and particularly the squeezed middle.
These are the young families who, in an ideal world, should be driving the market by purchasing homes.”
Stunden says: ”We heard nothing (at the Labour conference) about how to support those in the squeezed middle, who don’t qualify for government benefits but are struggling to realise their dream of homeownership. These are the young families who, in an ideal world, should be driving the market by purchasing homes.”
No viable pathways
He adds that they: “Are not seeing viable pathways to homeownership through traditional means. The government’s target of 1.5 million new homes across the next parliament continues to resonate in speeches, but without policies to stimulate demand and incentivise developers, there’s little motivation for homebuilders to transform vacant land into thriving communities.”
He does make it clear, however, that he is not calling for a big cash stimulus from the Treasury such as the Help to Buy scheme, which he says just pushed up prices.
Instead Stunden believes the government should take a more balanced approach – policies that both stimulate demand and incentivise developers, with everyone from developers to the private market and public investment all working towards the same goal.
He is concerned though that: “While the Chancellor boldly promised to ‘put shovels in the ground,’ her speech only mentioned the word ‘house’ twice, leaving the industry puzzled as to where the real incentives lie.”
Kettel Homes‘ platform enables people to live in the homes they want to own while building the required deposit, credit and affordability to buy them.
